For the last nearly 20 years, the Pokémon series has entertained millions of gamers through its many main series and side-series games (Which makes me wish for a new Pokémon Stadium game), and like many franchises, it has inspired various expressions of fan love.
Fan art, fan fiction, and even in the case of Pokémon (in fact, any major long-running game series)...fan games.
Yes, fan games. People actually made their very own Pokémon games from scratch, using programs like RPG Maker and the like. I never really thought much of some games, until I stumbled upon a YouTube channel that did a series of videos showing a play-through of one of them: Pokémon Insurgence.
Insurgence's story is quite a bit darker and grimmer than the "Official" Pokémon games, so much so that the creator included the option to play a lighter version of the game's story that tones down certain plot elements.
The game is set in the new region of Torren, a region that is home to several cults, each worshipping a certain legendary Pokémon as a divine being. The cults cause a lot of carnage, and also have been known to use human sacrifices to summon the Legendary Pokémon they worship. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, but it is quite different from your standard Pokémon game.
It does do a lot of things differently from the official games, including how you are introduced to your player character to even the starter Pokémon.
The gameplay and world is incredible, looking like a game from Pokémon's Gen III-IV era. The world is bright, colorful, and beautiful, which is a nice contrast to the darker story.
The surprising thing about this game? It's a beta. It's unfinished. Yup, as of the date this blog entry was put up, the game's development is not completed. However, so far, it does feel like a complete Pokémon game so far. If it's this fun when unfinished, I can't wait to see the game completed! Download it!
You can download it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonInsurgence/search?q=flair%3AOlder%2Brelease+OR+flair%3ACurrent%2BRelease&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all
Monday, September 28, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
My thoughts on Pokemon GO
Recently, it has been announced that there is a new game coming for iOS and Android devices, and it's a Pokémon game. Yup, after Pokémon Shuffle comes...Pokémon GO.
Pokémon GO is what is called an "augmented reality" game. An augmented reality game is a basically a game that enhances real life images with computer-generated images. Basically, such a game would involve you seeing a real-life image of, say, a grassy field. The game would then provide images of creatures running around on said field.
Based on the trailer, this game emphasizes exploration, encouraging owners of the game to walk around to find Pokémon in the real world.
I actually like this concept, to be honest. It does help you feel like a real Pokémon trainer, travelling around your town and anywhere you carry your tablet or more likely your phone, and finding Pokémon everywhere you go. The game also allows trainers to battle and trade, which further encouraged social interaction. I wonder if it'll allow online battles, too. It MUST have that feature.
I also like that the game is free-to-play. It does have micro-transactions, but it's not a big deal to me, I hardly ever use those features. I hope it has that feature that you get rewards for logging in and playing every day. I like that feature, because it encourages regular playing. Keep playing, and you get something nice.
The game is also going to be sold with a device that essentially works as a Pokémon detector.
It looks like a Pokémaniac's tear after they announce a new game in the series, ha ha. It does raise some questions for me, though. Is it required to play the game? Where is it sold? How much will this thing cost? To me, this little gadget here is the only potential stumbling block to something that seems like a lot of fun, and I would love to give a try to.
Pokémon GO is what is called an "augmented reality" game. An augmented reality game is a basically a game that enhances real life images with computer-generated images. Basically, such a game would involve you seeing a real-life image of, say, a grassy field. The game would then provide images of creatures running around on said field.
Based on the trailer, this game emphasizes exploration, encouraging owners of the game to walk around to find Pokémon in the real world.
I actually like this concept, to be honest. It does help you feel like a real Pokémon trainer, travelling around your town and anywhere you carry your tablet or more likely your phone, and finding Pokémon everywhere you go. The game also allows trainers to battle and trade, which further encouraged social interaction. I wonder if it'll allow online battles, too. It MUST have that feature.
I also like that the game is free-to-play. It does have micro-transactions, but it's not a big deal to me, I hardly ever use those features. I hope it has that feature that you get rewards for logging in and playing every day. I like that feature, because it encourages regular playing. Keep playing, and you get something nice.
The game is also going to be sold with a device that essentially works as a Pokémon detector.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Batman/TMNT, My Thoughts.
Comics can surprise you, mainly in the form of the crossover. We've seen epic ones, like JLA/Avengers, and strange ones, like Archie Meets the Punisher. We've seen lots of crossovers over the years, and the latest is an announcement of DC Comics and IDW, Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be meeting up in a six-issue mini-series by James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams II.
I'm looking forward to this crossover. The creative team promises "wall-to-wall ninja action in Gotham", so maybe the heroes will be taking on the League of Assassins and the Foot Clan. It is possible interdimensional hijinks may be involved, mainly because of Krang, and alternate dimensions was how they pulled off the TMNT/Ghostbusters crossover (a really cool crossover in its own right).
This crossover looks like a lot of fun. I haven't been buying a lot of DC stuff lately, due to my scaling back on comics buying, and because a lot of titles lost their appeal to me, but I will be getting this.
 |
| "Yo, Bat-Dude! Any good pizza joints in Gotham?" |
This crossover looks like a lot of fun. I haven't been buying a lot of DC stuff lately, due to my scaling back on comics buying, and because a lot of titles lost their appeal to me, but I will be getting this.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Does the Marvel Cinematic Universe need the X-Men?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been quite an achievement in film, a series of movies that set up an interconnected universe. From Iron Man to Ant-Man, the films all enriched, expanded, and told some fun stories.
Unfortunately, due to legal reasons, two major teams from the Marvel Comics Universe can't be a part of the MCU: The Fantastic Four and the X-Men. The film rights to those characters and their corners of the Marvel Universe belong to Fox.
The failure of the latest film outing of the Fantastic Four has led to fans calling for Fox to give the rights to the Fantastic Four back to Marvel. It has also come to light that Sony, the holders to the film rights to Spider-Man, have made a deal with Marvel Studios to bring Spider-Man into the MCU.
With this, I asked myself, what about the X-Men? Would Marvel and Fox do a deal to have the X-Men join the MCU? They did something like that for Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron. As part of the deal, the MCU version of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were revamped to be humans that were empowered by experimentation instead of being born with their powers.
But here's the thing, does the MCU NEED the X-Men? Does their absence take away from the MCU? Would bringing them in add anything special to the MCU?
After thinking about it, my opinion is simply this: It would be nice to have them from a Marvel fan perspective, but maybe the MCU will be just fine without them.
Think about it, the MCU has done well without the X-Men so far. And since Marvel Studios can't use them or the Fantastic Four, it's forced them to dig deeper into Marvel's massive library of characters for characters they could. It's what inspired them to make films with Ant-Man and Guardians, and even the Inhumans. Critically and financially, the MCU films have done well with nary a mutant in sight. The Avengers has become the highest-grossing superhero movie ever, beating out the first Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man film, and even The Dark Knight Rises! In 19 days, 19 DAYS, it not only made back its budget, but also the budget for every other MCU film to that point. And all without a mutant in sight.
Not to mention there's another reason why the MCU really doesn't need the X-Men that badly: The Inhumans. In the comics, the Inhumans were a hidden race, an offshoot of humanity created by alien experimentation on humanity's ancestors. These test subjects would live in seclusion from the rest of humanity, creating an advanced technological society with a rigid caste system, when the rest of humanity was emerging from the caves. When a young Inhuman would come of age, they would be exposed to a gas called Terrigen Mist, which would grant them superhuman abilities.
The Infinity storyline revealed that there were secret tribes of Inhumans that interbred with humanity, creating human descendants with dormant Inhuman genes, which would be exposed with the Inhumanity storyline. One good thing about that storyline is it would give rise to one of my favorite Marvel characters, Kamala Khan, the latest Ms. Marvel.
In the MCU, storylines in the Agents of SHIELD series have introduced the Inhumans, and the ending of season two has hinted that we will be seeing more Inhumans. It can be assumed based on that series, that the staus quo of the Inhumans is similar to the comic, there are lots of people out there with hidden Inhuman genes, and we're going to see their Inhuman natures come to light. Not to mention, an Inhumans movie is planned to be released in 2019, which can be assumed will focus on the Inhuman Royal Family: Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Karnak, Gorgon, Triton, and Lockjaw.
With this status quo, it can be assumed that Inhumans are the MCU's equivalent of mutants in a way, people born with powers who are hated and feared. As such, bringing in mutants would be...rather redundant. Mutants are people born with their powers who are hated and feared. What would make them different from the MCU Inhumans?
So, while it would be nice to see the X-Men in the MCU, they are not really needed. Let's face it, Fox will never give the rights to the Merry Mutants back to Marvel, they're too profitable. And in the MCU, they'd end up a redundancy. Any story the X-Men could tell with the themes they are associated with, mainly prejudice and fear of power abusage, could be told with the MCU's take on the Inhumans.
Unfortunately, due to legal reasons, two major teams from the Marvel Comics Universe can't be a part of the MCU: The Fantastic Four and the X-Men. The film rights to those characters and their corners of the Marvel Universe belong to Fox.
The failure of the latest film outing of the Fantastic Four has led to fans calling for Fox to give the rights to the Fantastic Four back to Marvel. It has also come to light that Sony, the holders to the film rights to Spider-Man, have made a deal with Marvel Studios to bring Spider-Man into the MCU.
With this, I asked myself, what about the X-Men? Would Marvel and Fox do a deal to have the X-Men join the MCU? They did something like that for Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron. As part of the deal, the MCU version of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were revamped to be humans that were empowered by experimentation instead of being born with their powers.
But here's the thing, does the MCU NEED the X-Men? Does their absence take away from the MCU? Would bringing them in add anything special to the MCU?
After thinking about it, my opinion is simply this: It would be nice to have them from a Marvel fan perspective, but maybe the MCU will be just fine without them.
Think about it, the MCU has done well without the X-Men so far. And since Marvel Studios can't use them or the Fantastic Four, it's forced them to dig deeper into Marvel's massive library of characters for characters they could. It's what inspired them to make films with Ant-Man and Guardians, and even the Inhumans. Critically and financially, the MCU films have done well with nary a mutant in sight. The Avengers has become the highest-grossing superhero movie ever, beating out the first Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man film, and even The Dark Knight Rises! In 19 days, 19 DAYS, it not only made back its budget, but also the budget for every other MCU film to that point. And all without a mutant in sight.
Not to mention there's another reason why the MCU really doesn't need the X-Men that badly: The Inhumans. In the comics, the Inhumans were a hidden race, an offshoot of humanity created by alien experimentation on humanity's ancestors. These test subjects would live in seclusion from the rest of humanity, creating an advanced technological society with a rigid caste system, when the rest of humanity was emerging from the caves. When a young Inhuman would come of age, they would be exposed to a gas called Terrigen Mist, which would grant them superhuman abilities.
The Infinity storyline revealed that there were secret tribes of Inhumans that interbred with humanity, creating human descendants with dormant Inhuman genes, which would be exposed with the Inhumanity storyline. One good thing about that storyline is it would give rise to one of my favorite Marvel characters, Kamala Khan, the latest Ms. Marvel.
In the MCU, storylines in the Agents of SHIELD series have introduced the Inhumans, and the ending of season two has hinted that we will be seeing more Inhumans. It can be assumed based on that series, that the staus quo of the Inhumans is similar to the comic, there are lots of people out there with hidden Inhuman genes, and we're going to see their Inhuman natures come to light. Not to mention, an Inhumans movie is planned to be released in 2019, which can be assumed will focus on the Inhuman Royal Family: Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Karnak, Gorgon, Triton, and Lockjaw.
With this status quo, it can be assumed that Inhumans are the MCU's equivalent of mutants in a way, people born with powers who are hated and feared. As such, bringing in mutants would be...rather redundant. Mutants are people born with their powers who are hated and feared. What would make them different from the MCU Inhumans?
So, while it would be nice to see the X-Men in the MCU, they are not really needed. Let's face it, Fox will never give the rights to the Merry Mutants back to Marvel, they're too profitable. And in the MCU, they'd end up a redundancy. Any story the X-Men could tell with the themes they are associated with, mainly prejudice and fear of power abusage, could be told with the MCU's take on the Inhumans.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
The Awesomeness of RetroBlasting.
One day, when watching a bunch of old Batman toy commercials on YouTube (It was slow, and I was bored), and I ended up watching a video by a user called "RetroBlasting".
I ended up enjoying the video, and started watching more of their videos. What was RetroBlasting, I wondered? Luckily, I discovered they had a website.
Who are RetroBlasting? Two people: Michael French and Melinda Mock. Two people who grew up on 1980s pop culture. Their mission? To analyze, examine, and deconstruct the pop culture of the 1980s, to be seen in a new light.
Their videos are a blast to watch. Their analyses often comes in the form of two videos: The first reviewing the cartoon series, and the second reviewing the tie-in toyline. They do a great job presenting the histories of the series and their toyline tie-ins, the videos never feeling dull thanks to the touch of humor they add in their videos. Watch for Broken Vader in their videos. He's a Darth Vader figure with no arms, and he is snarky.
They also put up videos of restorations of old toys, which I enjoy watching as it's fun to see how they take old toys that have been worn down by time and play and bringing them back to life.
If you're feeling nostalgic and/or love 80s stuff like I do, and are willing to laugh about it, give RetroBlasting's videos a watch! They're a RetroBlast!
I ended up enjoying the video, and started watching more of their videos. What was RetroBlasting, I wondered? Luckily, I discovered they had a website.
Who are RetroBlasting? Two people: Michael French and Melinda Mock. Two people who grew up on 1980s pop culture. Their mission? To analyze, examine, and deconstruct the pop culture of the 1980s, to be seen in a new light.
Their videos are a blast to watch. Their analyses often comes in the form of two videos: The first reviewing the cartoon series, and the second reviewing the tie-in toyline. They do a great job presenting the histories of the series and their toyline tie-ins, the videos never feeling dull thanks to the touch of humor they add in their videos. Watch for Broken Vader in their videos. He's a Darth Vader figure with no arms, and he is snarky.
They also put up videos of restorations of old toys, which I enjoy watching as it's fun to see how they take old toys that have been worn down by time and play and bringing them back to life.
If you're feeling nostalgic and/or love 80s stuff like I do, and are willing to laugh about it, give RetroBlasting's videos a watch! They're a RetroBlast!
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